Just a few days later, on Friday night, when the football team is set to play Iowa on the road, they are ready to hit the road to play at the Cady Memorial Stadium, Thomas receives bad news from the referee in Iowa:
“Gentlemen, the decision has been made to postpone the game to tomorrow at noon!” Thomas informs the VA players. “A lightning storm is brewing, and they deemed the weather too dangerous to play in!”
Ouch. The only thing capable of postponing a football game happened tonight! Games happened even when it rained! I must notify Warren on the double! Tal Atkins is tomorrow and I can’t make it because of the football game! I’m going to miss LQBA Fall if we make the football playoffs, and probably Winter if we go to football-State, Pablo then emails Warren, detailing the whole situation about the football game against Iowa being postponed because of thunderstorms in Iowa, and staying inside.
The coach’s answer has been quick: “You will be able to play in tomorrow’s football game, but you are on the hook to find a replacement player!”
“Guys, because of this game being postponed, I can’t play in tomorrow’s quiz bowl tournament! If you know anyone who can play quiz bowl tomorrow, please let me know!” Pablo asks his football teammates.
“You already have Lilina and Nadine. Aren’t they enough to get VA a HSNCT berth?” George asks him, questioning the need for Pablo to play at Tal Atkins.
To this request, unfortunately, nearly all of Pablo’s teammates draw a blank. Even though, collectively, they knew almost everyone at school, and certainly who could possibly play backup in a quiz bowl tournament. Pablo sighs, and calls Audrey to ask a favor from her about Tal Atkins.
“Audrey, I have a favor to ask of you. Because of lightning storms, today’s game is postponed to tomorrow, and I can’t play at Tal Atkins. The football team has been of no use trying to find a replacement player…”
“It’s not the end of the world, but most people I asked last year when I missed LQBA Fall Invitational South won’t be able to this year either!”
Damn it! As much as Susan might have seen some quiz bowling potential in Heather, this Rule of 2 means Heather is out of the question since she does FFA again this year! Don’t think Warren will like it very much if there is more than one basketball player doing quiz bowl, which means Cora is also out of the question. Maybe get a willing middle school quiz bowler to play on the B-team since, on the plus side, I will finally get to play on the same team as Pablo did last season! Audrey’s thoughts race against the clock, just as Pablo asks on the quiz bowl team’s social media for a substitute player for Tal Atkins.
Which leaves Warren with few options, unfortunately making him call the parents of the eighth graders on the middle school quiz bowl squad to ask them for permission to get their kids to attend Tal Atkins. And tell them about the logistics.
“Report here tomorrow at eleven AM!” the football coach instructs his players before sending them home.
Pablo receives a text message from Heather about the AP Chemistry lab report. “Because I will be on an official visit at Columbia this weekend, finish this lab report, please”
I guess, time to finish the lab report in AP Chemistry I was assigned to do with Heather. Surprisingly, Heather is nicer to me than she is to Audrey… Pablo ruminates on his way home, planning to finish the AP Chemistry lab report, along with the assignment in that course.
“The game is postponed to tomorrow because lightning storms happened!” Pablo tells his parents upon returning home from this rained-out football game.
“And quiz bowl then? What does that mean?” Pablo’s mom asks him.
“I won’t be able to go. Also, I’d spend the entire day going from and to Shreveport for that tournament!” Pablo then points at the lightning bolt outside.
“Go finish your homework then…” Pablo’s dad tells him, before Pablo goes into his bedroom to finish the lab report.
Finishing the AP Chemistry lab report and homework is fairly straightforward to him, and then he finishes his other homework, such as other AP courses. I guess, Heather should be happy that I could make my part work on this lab report, especially since she’ll be gone all weekend on official visit to Columbia… so maybe Heather really has what it takes to play basketball in the Ivy League! Then again, if Heather does, Audrey does, too.
The following day, with the weather having improved somewhat, in the sense that there is only light rain outside, Pablo makes it to the campus with his remaining homework, which isn’t nearly as much as last night. In hopes that he can finish the homework while on the bus to Iowa.
However, on the bus to Iowa, he can’t help but wonder how Audrey is performing at Tal Atkins on the A-team. Especially since, by then, the prelim rounds usually end. So it seems like VA is, once again, headed to the HSNCT, because Audrey, despite not being used to playing with Lilina and Nadine, still plays relatively well, but for Josiane, who replaces me, this is a learning experience.
The team is then brought to the visitors’ locker room of the Cady Memorial Stadium, where the head coach harangues the players, wearing white jerseys with purple trim, going into the game:
“You guys lost two games in a row! You want to make the playoffs, you ought to make every game from here on out count! Now, Iowa’s offensive line can put us in a world of hurt, so, on the defense, we will need to make sure that we can force the opponent to play the passing game!” the head coach harangues his players.
“What about us when we are on the offense?” George asks the team’s offensive coordinator.
“Their secondary defense might be a little brittle, so we need to force them to blitz, and then Pablo may as well get ready to evade their D-line and then act more or less like a third wide receiver, if they blitz!” the offensive coordinator tells the offensive players.
“Venomous! Agendas!” Pablo hollers before the scheduled time to make the entrance.
Only a handful of VA fans were willing to make the trip to Iowa for the game, so there are only a few traces of green in the crowd since both Iowa and VA have purple as their primary jersey color. As Iowa’s home announcer takes up position in the press box:
“Welcome to this thunderstorm-delayed Iowa Yellow Jackets game! Tonight’s visitors, from Jefferson Davis Parish, the Venomous Agendas!” the Yellow Jackets’ home announcer hollers while the VAs enter the stadium.
A few moments later, the Yellow Jackets make a much grander entrance, complete with an inflatable tunnel, color guard members holding flags amid a smokescreen. The coin toss has determined that Iowa would start the game on the offensive.
“It appears that, for the first down, the opponent is going all-in on the rush! Malcolm, you will need to go opposite Ethan!” the defensive coordinator calls the play.
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VA is going to blitz, and then each cornerback still in play is going to be covering much more ground than usual. As the down begins on a wet playing surface…
“Sack that quarterback!” Pablo hollers over the bench, in Finn’s direction, as the opposing QB starts running.
And the opposing QB runs away from Finn, which forces Ethan to try taking the opposing QB in a pincer maneuver. However, Finn gets pinned by the opposing offensive tackle to the ground, feeling something has broken in his body during the play, as Dayton tackles the opposing center.
The Yellow Jackets’ quarterback clumsily attempts passing the ball to the running back, which gets promptly tackled by Malcolm, causing the whistle to be blown.
After the whistle is blown, Finn struggles to get back up, needing help from his teammates to do so. I think I broke something on this play. My parents won’t be very happy that I broke a leg in a football game!
The medical staff working at the game examines Finn for any ailments he might have suffered on that play, and they come to a grim conclusion for Finn while he is carried off the field on a stretcher.
“Finn, you will be taken out of play. I’m afraid your season is over!” the first responder tells Finn, with the VAs’ defensive coordinator listening.
The VAs’ defensive coordinator then turns to George. “For the rest of the season, you will also play second-string defensive line!”
“How does playing defensive tackle or end differ from playing offensive guard?” George asks the coach, implying that he could be called upon to play either DT or DE depending on the play, albeit on the second string.
Is that how my life as a football player ends? A dazed and confused Finn wonders, feeling like he got hurt so bad that he might not be able to play football again. Unless, perhaps, VA makes the playoffs and goes deep, but he can’t bank on that happening.
When the rest of the VAs realize what’s happening to Finn, everyone is wondering how their defense will change going forward, on top of what happened to Finn on this play.
By half-time, however, VA is trailing by 10 points, and the coach is unhappy with the turn of events. And not simply because Finn got injured on that play early in the game. The VAs start questioning whether their season can still be saved without Finn anchoring the defense.
“The Yellow Jackets are leading twenty to ten! George, for the second half of the game, you will play on the defensive line. Since you played on the offensive line, you have an idea of what to expect from the defensive line!” the defensive coordinator tells George.
“We will step up to the plate and avenge the fall of Finn!” Pablo adds.
“Venomous! Agendas!” Ethan hollers before the half-time ends.
When play resumes, into the third quarter, the opponent somehow attempts a passing play on the first down. At that point, Richard dashes to where he feels the ball could fall, while remaining mindful of the opposing WR’s route.
And Richard, somehow, beats the WR to the ball as he leaps towards it for the interception. Once the ball is intercepted, he gets back on the ground and starts running like the wind.
By running like the wind, ball in hand, Richard causes opposing players to breathe down his neck, and stop any possible losses in yardage right in their tracks. However, the required U-turns cost the Yellow Jackets precious fractions of a second, or even more than a full second for the less agile of them.
And yet, under the boos of the crowd, Richard keeps dashing towards the opposing goal line with the opponents gaining ground on him at every step. Richard feels like nothing else matters in the world at this point, and he starts getting short of breath when he closes in on the goal line. Panting, he barely crosses the goal line before collapsing of the exertion of this dash.
“Touchdown! The Venomous Agendas score the first defensive TD of the game!” the Yellow Jackets’ home announcer yells in the PA system.
“Venomous! Agendas!” the VA players on the bench holler.
However, the kicker is brought in to attempt a one-point conversion right after the VAs score the defensive touchdown. This marks the start of what the VAs hope is a rally in the second half of the game.
As the game continues, the VAs keep trying to score more points on later downs, but they are still trailing since the Yellow Jackets score one touchdown at the end of the third quarter, and the VAs score another one near the middle of the second quarter.
Going into the dying seconds of the game, the VAs are on the offense, and they are fourth and 7, trailing 27-24. This time around, they take their final timeout of the game:
“For this one play, I know it’s risky, but first we need to make the opponent believe we are going to rush the ball to get a first down, in hopes of causing them to blitz. Also, Pablo, you’re our best hope of making this work, so you’re back in for this play. You stand a better chance to break away from the opposing line, and then get our quarterback to throw the ball in your direction!” the head coach mostly rehashes what the OC told them pre-game.
This timeout proves a well-needed rest for the players, and the players assume their positions, with Pablo being a little farther from the offensive linemen than usual.
The quarterback, feeling like he’s about to get blitzed, even though the Yellow Jackets’ strong safety is a little farther back than the linebackers, passes the ball forward. In doing so, this causes Pablo to race to the ball while remaining mindful of the strong safety on one side, and a cornerback on the other.
And, with both the SS and a CB breathing down Pablo’s neck, he feels the game’s clock ticking in his mind as he catches the ball in a run. Now that the ball is in his hands, he swerves around the opposing cornerback, narrowly avoiding a high-speed impact between the two.
Everyone in the stadium is watching, and the Yellow Jacket fans start shaking in the bleachers. The Venomous Agendas are going to steal our thunder! Previously, VA had issues on the gridiron, and now it looks like they can win! a nervous Yellow Jacket fan watches Pablo run for the goal line.
Speaking of thunder, Pablo has to be lightning-quick to make it to the goal line. Once again, as with Richard early in the third quarter, he dashes under the boos of the local crowd. The Yellow Jackets’ fans hope that, by booing, they will throw Pablo off his game and cause him to get careless.
Unfortunately, that was not to be, and Pablo gets tunnel vision as he keeps dashing towards the goal line. Each step, each yard gained, is accompanied by opposition also running on his back. He ceases caring about opposing players, and just runs with the ball, with his heart beating like a drum in his body.
In this mad dash, Pablo, oblivious not only to the opposing players, also appears to be oblivious to the fixtures of the field. As the game clock still ticks, he gets into the Yellow Jackets’ end zone, scoring six points for the VAs. However, a fraction of a second into the end zone, Pablo, still tunnel-visioned, hits the goal post, the ball still in his hands.
Eek… what did I do, or fail to do, to hit this goalpost? Pablo snaps out of it when the referee blows the whistle, but feels the pain in his left shoulder. He hands the ball to the referee as the scoreboard changes, ensuring that VA wins the game as the game clock rings to signal the end of the game. Without a conversion taking place.
“And that’s the game. The Yellow Jackets lose, thirty to twenty-seven!” Iowa’s home announcer closes the game as the fans leave the stadium and both teams return to their respective dressing rooms.
I hope Finn is alright, Pablo ruminates, despite his past interactions with him. Poor Finn! I just want him to take as long as necessary to recover from this broken leg.
After they are finished showering and tucking away their belongings in their bags, Pablo then checks on Quiz Bowl Resource Center, which posts tournament results before NAQT does in a lot of cases, for the playoff results of Tal Atkins. And hence whether they earned a HSNCT berth.
On Monday morning, just before the AP US Government lecture begins, the morning announcement is delivered as a couple, with Heather also waiting on the wings.
“This Saturday, the Venomous Agendas won a thunderstorm-delayed away football game against Iowa, thirty to twenty-seven!” Pablo delivers the football team’s announcement. “Unfortunately, this came at a cost: Finn Lyons, a defensive end, broke a leg during that game!”
We in theater always wish people to break their legs. In fact, theater is the only place where you can wish people to break their legs without coming off as a jerk, Nadine ruminates, even though her role as a theater actress this Fall is, at best, a support role. But it had to happen to a football player; it’s the most dangerous sport VA fields a team for!
“And the Venomous Agendas’ quiz bowl team have already earned a HSNCT berth by virtue of the A-team winning the Tal Atkins tournament! The B-team finished fourth, one place short of a HSNCT berth!” Audrey announces before going to the AP US Government classroom, and handing off to Heather.
“Last but not least, for the first time since the school team was renamed the Venomous Agendas, a VA student athlete landed a Division I offer! From an Ivy League school, Columbia no less!” Heather exclaims on the PA system.
Whether I will actually sign with Columbia is another matter entirely. I guess, I should start writing my essays for Columbia now, unless another offer comes along, and my parents made me send questionnaires and highlight reels to nearly every college at Tulane’s prestige level or higher, Division 1 or 3, Heather is in for a tough decision ahead.